Opening with a celebration on June 5, 1970, Gerard Letrange, on his 35th birthday, sits in contemplative mood as he looks across Lake Geneva. He reflects on his life so far, as he prepares to attend a family get-together in his honor. He was born into a privileged and financially secure family in the banking sector. His friends are similarly affluent and their lives and interactions are recounted here over two decades, as their personalities are forged through a periodic series of dances, study, chess, swimming, tennis, discussions on the popular culture of the day, hiking, poker games, college fraternities, the passions, pains and desires of the transition from youth to adulthood, along with the imposed manners and etiquette of high-society living, where people drive Rolls Royce cars and smoke Montechristo cigars.Will these friends and lovers remain as such as time progresses and they strive to secure lucrative careers and positions in the world?
What changes will settling into marriage and domesticity bring to them?
Will life hold up to their high standards and expectations?
This is the first book of a trilogy that sets the stage for the next two books in the series: Alteration and True Minds.
Although a gentler story than his first two hard-edged Tom Bowin thrillers (The Abomination Assignment and The Honeymoon Assignment), this is another story that is thoughtful and accomplished in detail, pans out over separate continents and takes in a variety of well developed characters in an interesting period drama. I admire authors who don’t get mired down in one particular pattern of writing and what has impressed me about this book is that author, Lee Holz, has tackled different genres with equal skill.
